Tony fans have been excited to learn the world’s most popular gengaka has just announced he will be turning his hand to designing anime and illustrating light novels, amazingly enough having so far not yet pursued either line of business.
In an update to his site, the artist reveals the formation of his new design label “Albion Works,” saying “I’d like to challenge myself in new fields” and that “there were constraints which prevented me trying my hand at original anime or light novel work.”
He also mentions “wanting to more aggressively pursue Vocaloid-related work,” suggesting his much loved Sega Miku could soon be accompanied by other Vocaloids.
A slew of Tony-illustrated light novels now seems inevitable (which will presumably in turn lead to even more anime adaptations), even if no anime materialises immediately.
He does not comment on whether this might effect his more erotic works, although given he has long juggled work for both Sega and eroge this would seem unlikely – though interestingly he does mention not wanting any new requests from social game or MMORPG producers.
Amongst his fans there is some excitement at the prospect of his work becoming yet more widely available – although it may come as a shock to many to learn that an artist of his stature had not already designed any.
Didn’t he already do designs for a game-turned anime? Doesn’t that count?
BEST NEWS OF THE YEAR!
isn’t working on games better rather than light novels?
Good job deleting my comment from earlier, just proves I’m right.
Reposting:
I don’t know why Tony is so popular when compared to far superior artists like Ishikei, Ohigetan, Date, Barista, etc. His artwork is just incredibly plain and unimaginative. He doesn’t really bring anything new to the table. He’s kind of like the baker of art; it’s not bad, but it’s still bread.
When Miyazaki Hayao was getting into the biz, he was told he couldn’t draw people. Now everyone raves about Ghibli’s distinctive art style. Food for thought.